Cleopatra Cat Stone is her full name. She is a
handicapped cat who was born with 40% of her upper soft and hard palate missing
with a severe cleft in the existing portion. Cleo is the result of an accidental
breeding between our Abyssinian Male and a domestic short hair Female. Cleo is a
brown tabby with a reddish frosting, black barring and has a black war bonnet
between her ears. She looks like a cat in military cammi's, she would blend
right in at the Army's special warfare center.

Due to the missing palate sections, for the past year
she has been raised by tube feeding her. Initially she was fed every hour,
Twenty Four hours a day. After a year the feeding schedule is Three times a day.
At the time this page was created she had been tube fed over 2000 times. She is
a survivor and allowed us to tube feed her for the past year with out any
struggle or resistance on her part. As she grew her part in the feeding process
grew until today, I offer her the catheter, she takes it in her mouth and
swallows it till she feels the tape I mark the length with. She sits in
Maureen's hands, not held, just sitting there while I slowly feed her with a 60
CC syringe.

Cleo's patients has been rewarded as over the past year the remainder of
her palate grew in and the cleft has closed over the first 1cm leaving the back
open about 2 mm. She is scheduled over the next two weeks for a surgical attempt
to close the cleft at Tufts University Foster Animal Hospital.